


Underwater Secrets

by EveryFandomThereIs, Impossible_Girl_04



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, F/F, F/M, Multi, Original Character(s), Season 1 Spoilers, Season 2 spoilers, Season 3 Spoilers, Season 4 Spoilers, Season 5 Spoilers, Season 6 Spoilers, Season 7 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:01:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25671748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EveryFandomThereIs/pseuds/EveryFandomThereIs, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Impossible_Girl_04/pseuds/Impossible_Girl_04
Summary: A strange, injured girl is found on a beach and  SHIELD is forced to investigate due to the strange thing about her: she appears to be a mermaid.
Relationships: Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie/Yo Yo Rodriguez, Jemma Simmons/Skye | Daisy Johnson, Lance Hunter/Bobbi Morse, Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons
Comments: 3
Kudos: 20





	1. Prologue

"What are we seeing, Jemma?" Coulson asked as the team stood on the shore and watched as a team of medics rolled a trolley past them.

"I'm not really sure, sir," Jemma replied. She looked away from the tablet she was holding and watched the medics.

"She could be Inhuman," May suggested. It was a valid point.

"Even if she isn't," Coulson said as he walked back towards the quinjet, "we should probably take her back to the Playground anyway. In case any more harm comes her way."

The medics rolled the trolley with the girl's body on it into the quinjet and they flew away, back to the Playground.


	2. 1

Carys woke up with a start.

The first thing she felt was the tube down her throat. Then the wires on her arms. Then the pain in her tail.

The first thing she saw was the glass window in front of her which showed some kind of lab. Then she saw the heart monitor, the ventilator and all other kinds of medical equipment. The final thing she noticed was the hospital bed she was lying in.

_They caught me._

Carys began to panic.

_All that pain to escape, only to have them catch me again._

It was then that she noticed that her arms and tail weren't restrained like they normally were when they experimented on her. She then noticed the wheelchair which was next to her bed.

Carys raised an eyebrow.

_They're normally a lot more careful than this._

She smirked a little and began to pull out the IV lines and the breathing tube whilst gagging and trying to suppress a cough.

Once that was done, Carys slowly sat up in bed and swung her tail over the side. She shuffled as far forward as she dared and managed to pull the wheelchair towards her with the little strength she had.

After a few moments of struggle, Carys managed to get herself into the wheelchair and was wheeling herself towards the glass door that led to the main lab.

The lab itself seemed to be pretty tidy, but when Carys looked closer she saw that there were pieces of paper scattered here and there; post-it notes stuck on almost every computer screen; small spillage of liquids, and coats dumped on most of the chairs.

_I've never been in this lab before._

Then she remembered. Slightly.

* * *

_She had escaped._

_She had been swimming away, but they were chasing her and trying to recapture her._

_Then there was the pain. A harpoon had impaled her tail and was causing her to swim slower._

_She had acted without thinking about anything except her need to survive, and she had broken the end of the harpoon off with a rock._

_She had continued to swim._

_Until she blacked out._

_She drifted in and out of consciousness as people were operating on her to remove the harpoon._

_She could hear voices, but not actual words or names._

_A comforting hand had been stroking her hair back as her mother used to when she was little._

* * *

Carys shook her head. She needed to focus on getting out of... of...

She didn't even know where she was. The only thing she did know was that it wasn't their base. Too many mistakes had been made: no restraints, the wheelchair, the unlocked door, the lack of prison cells.

Carys continued to wheel herself out of the lab and down an empty corridor until she heard voices coming towards her.

She quickly began to wheel herself into the closest empty room and silently shut the door slightly so that she could still hear and see what was happening.

She watched as a man and a woman walked into the lab.

"What I don't understand," the man said, "is where she came from."

"Fitz," the woman said, "we could potentially have a real-life mermaid in our midst, and you're wondering where she's from?"

"Aren't you curious?" The man, Fitz, asked. "There could be more mermaids out there! We could learn so much about ocean life if there is!"

"That's if she really is a mermaid." The woman replied.

The pair continued to talk but they had moved into the lab and out of earshot.

Carys carefully shut the door fully and moved herself to the back of the room.

_I need to get out of here._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there!  
> I hope you are enjoying the story so far!  
> I'm sorry if the chapters are really short, I'm rubbish at writing longer chapters.  
> Thanks for reading!


	3. 2

Jemma looked over her shoulder to check that Fitz was still with her.

"Jemma," Fitz said, "do you even know what she is?"

"No, Fitz," she replied as the duo made their way to the lab, "I honestly don't have a clue. But she would have to have some kind of human biology, otherwise, the medication wouldn't be working."

The pair turned a corner and walked in silence for a few moments.

"What I don't understand is where she came from." Fitz broke the silence as they entered the bustling lab.

"Fitz," Jemma interrupted, "we could potentially have a real-life mermaid in our midst, and you are wondering where she came from?"

"Aren't you curious?" He asked. "There could be more living where ever she's from, and think about how much we could learn about the ocean!"

Jemma nodded as they arrived at their work stations.

"I mean," Fitz continued, "that's only if she's a _real_ mermaid and not an Inhuman."

"Or an experiment," Jemma added.

"Or an alien," Fitz finished.

Fitz remained by his work station as Jemma picked up her tablet with the little information they had on the mystery girl and walked over to the quarantine room at the back of the lab.

"Even if she is Inhuman, or alien," Fitz continued after a brief second of silence as he began to work on some kind of new Dwarf, "we haven't seen anything like her before."

Fitz continued talking but Jemma tuned him out slightly when she noticed something was off about the quarantine room.

Jemma's brow furrowed as she moved closer to get a better look at what was in there.

"Fitz," she waved a hand at him, "Fitz, stop talking,"

Fitz looked over at Jemma and began to walk over to her.

"Why?" He asked. "What's wro-"

He stopped talking as soon as he saw what was wrong.

"Oh, bloody hell," Fitz muttered.

The bed in the quarantine room where the girl had been laying was empty and the girl was nowhere to be seen.

"The Director is going to kill us." Fitz groaned as he wiped his hands across his face.

Jemma rolled her eyes at Fitz's overdramaticness, but on the inside, she was terrified. They had to find the girl.

"I knew we should have tied her down," Jemma heard Fitz continually mutter behind her.

She went into the room and one of the first things she noticed was that the wheelchair was missing.

"Fitz!" Jemma called, "I think I know how she left the room!"

She heard Fitz exhale loudly and say, "Ok, good! Does this mean we can find out where she is? And then find her?"

"No," Jemma admitted glumly. This dampened her already not-so-great mood until she saw the blood.

 _She's injured._ Jemma realised.

She silently grabbed the medkit off the shelf and began to follow the trail of blood without a word.

When Jemma noticed that Fitz wasn't following her, she went back and pulled him along by his sleeve until he got the message to follow her. 

"Where are we going?" He asked quietly as they left the lab and moved down the corridor.

"She's injured, isn't she?" Jemma said, "And if you look closely, you are able to see a faint trail of her blood, well I'm assuming it's her blood."

Fitz's eyes widened in realisation and he nodded.

The pair continued to follow the trail until it stopped outside of a door of one of the unused rooms.

"Fitz, stay out here," Jemma instructed as she put her hand on the door handle and began to open the door.

"Jemma," Fitz cautioned. He put his hand on top of hers.

"Someone needs to keep watch," Jemma reasoned, "and too many people coming at her at once could cause her to freak out, and we have no idea what she can do."

Fitz sighed, but let go of Jemma's hand so that she could go.

As Jemma slowly opened the door, she heard a loud crash and the sound of shuffling fabric.

Jemma slowly and calmly entered the room and saw the empty wheelchair tipped over onto its side. Then she saw the terrified girl in the shadows at the back of the room with her arms wrapped around her tail in front of her and her long black hair covering her face.


	4. 3

As the door handle twisted and the door began to open, Carys tried her hardest to manoeuvre the wheelchair further backwards but the wheel got caught on something and caused the chair to tip over and launch Carys onto the cold, hard ground.

The door slowly opened and Carys shuffled backwards until she felt the brick wall against her back.

The woman that Carys had seen earlier came into the room carrying a large bag.

Carys could feel her heart rate increasing in fear and she tried to move further backwards.

_They had those bags. Do they have me again? Are they going to hurt me? Experiment on me? Kill me?_

"Hi, there," the woman said softly as she began to move closer. But when she saw that Carys was trying to get further away from her, the woman paused, moved back a bit and sat on the floor with her legs crossed.

"Hi," the woman said again, "I'm Jemma."

Carys looked up and tilted her head slightly. Jemma didn't seem like a threat, like she wanted to hurt her. She looked kind. She didn't appear to have any kind of weaponry or needles with her (unless it was all in the bag) and she appeared to be alone.

"What's your name?" Jemma asked. Her voice was calm and she seemed to be trustworthy.

Carys couldn't trust anyone, she wouldn't. But she began to relax a little. Jemma didn't seem to want to harm her.

Jemma must have seen that Carys was beginning to trust her a little because she moved slightly closer.

"You're not much of a talker, are you?" Jemma asked when Carys didn't respond to her question.

Carys remained silent but made brief eye contact with Jemma.

"Can I look at your injury?" she requested.

Carys hesitated for a moment or two before nodding ever so slightly and shuffling forwards a little bit.

Jemma smiled as Carys extended her tail to show her the wound. She carefully and slowly opened the bag and bought out some bandages, disinfectant and painkillers.

Carys flinched slightly when Jemma applied the disinfectant, but she began to visibly relax when she fully realised that Jemma meant no harm.

Once her tail had been bandaged up and she had taken a few painkillers, Carys was listening to Jemma talk about everything and nothing at the same time.

"My favourite star system is probably Theta Serpentis. Its traditional name is Alya and its a triple star system in the constellation of Serpens." 

"Where you're from, do you learn about the stars?"

"Maybe once you've healed a bit I can show you the night sky."

The one-sided conversation continued until the man, Fitz she had called him, suddenly burst into the room.

"Jemma, May's wondering where you a-" Fitz was abruptly cut off by Carys collecting all of the water in the room and causing it to engulf him in a large ball of water.


	5. 4

Jemma's eyes widened in shock as she watched Fitz struggle to breathe and try to escape from the spinning water ball of death.

_No._

_Not again._

She stood up suddenly and rushed over to try to help Fitz out of the water, but it was no use.

"Stop it!" she yelled at the girl. "Stop it! Let him out!"

The girl was sat on the floor with her arms outstretched in front of her, causing more water to join the ball. Her eyes were wide with fear; as if she didn't know she was doing it, as if she didn't know how she could stop it.

_It's not her fault,_ Jemma had to remind herself, _try to imagine what she's been through to make her so scared._

Trying to understand the girl's fear did not stop Jemma from partially hating her for hurting Fitz.

"Stop it!" Jemma yelled again and again and again at the girl.

She turned back to Fitz and watched him struggle with wide eyes.

_Fuck, fuck, fuck._

Jemma kept on trying to reach into the sphere of water but the fact the more and more water was being added to it and the fact that the water seemed to be pushing back at her didn't help.

She continued to yell at the girl whilst trying to get Fitz out, but nothing was working.

"What the hell is going on?" Jemma heard May's voice by the doorway.

"Oh, May," Jemma exhaled, "thank God you're here! Please help!"

Jemma's voice was strained as she continued to push against the ball of water. It was then that she noticed that Fitz was beginning to slowly lose consciousness.

_No. Not again._

Suddenly, May was on the other side of the room and was tackling the girl to the ground. When the girl's head hit the floor, she was knocked out and this caused the sphere of water to drop to the floor and fall apart. Jemma was then able to grab Fitz's arm and pull him to safety.

"Fitz! Fitz!" Jemma said as she gently shook him. He was unconscious.

She immediately began to check for a pulse and checked that he was breathing. There was nothing.

_No, no, no, no, no._

Jemma began to perform CPR as she hoped and prayed that Fitz would be fine.

She couldn't lose him again.

Suddenly Fitz began coughing up water and was regaining consciousness.

"Oh, thank God!" Jemma exclaimed and embraced Fitz in a chest crushing hug.

May walked over to the pair and helped them stand up.

"Again," she said, "what the hell?"


	6. 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiya! Sorry for not updating sooner. Since school has restarted I have had neither the motivation nor the time to write. I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. As always kudos and comments are great!

_Cold table. Tight restraints. Sharp needles._

_"Discovery requires experimentation."_

_Bright lights. Dark room. Strange faces._

_"Discovery requires experimentation."_

_Distant screams. Red blood._

_"Carys!" A distant shout. "Help!"_

_Struggling. Struggling. Struggling._

_"Carys!"_

_Pain. Pain. Pain._

_"CARYS!"_

* * *

Carys's eyes snapped open and she found herself tied down to the bed she had woken up in earlier. The only difference was this time her hands were bound to the handles either side of the bed.

She started to struggle and pull against the restraints, trying desperately to get out. But Jemma rushed into the room before she could do anything to hurt herself.

"Please stop," Jemma begged as Carys continued to thrash about on the bed and pull at the restraints, "please! You're going to hurt yourself!"

_I don't care if I hurt myself,_ Carys thought, _I want to go home. I want to leave._

As she pulled and pulled against the restraints, Carys began to feel them become looser. Not too much, but they were getting looser. Now she could move her hands more easily without the tight restraints rubbing her skin raw. Now she had a small chance of escaping.

Carys kept an eye on Jemma (who had begun to hold the girl down) and on the door to the main lab. While she did so, Carys started to feel for any water particles in the air, on the floor, on the floor and on Jemma. She reached for the particles and pulled them towards her. Closer and closer.

Until the small, Asian woman who had knocked her out earlier burst into the room.

"Jemma!" She shouted as she pointed a gun at Carys.

Carys's eyes locked on the gun and she felt her connection with the water particles slipping away. The clumps of water around the room dropped to the floor with an almighty splash which caused Jemma to back away from Carys towards the Asian woman.

"Fitz!" she yelled as she moved backwards. "I'm going to need that sedative now!"

There was a muffled complaint coming from outside the room but Fitz was soon inside the cramped little room holding a fairly large needle.

At the sight of the needle, Carys began to pull harder at the restraints and soon enough the water clumps were back in the air and were floating towards Carys as if to protect her.

Carys closed her eyes as the clusters of water came closer, so she didn't see the Asian woman snatch the needle out of Fitz's hand. She didn't see her leap over the bed. She didn't see her plunge the needle into her upper arm.

However, she did feel the bed shake as it was jumped over. She did feel the needle sink into her arm. She did feel the sedative entering her system.

Her eyes snapped open and locked with Jemma's before she whispered a quiet "No," and fell unconscious.

* * *

_Warm bed. Soft blankets. Springy mattress._

_"Carys, you need to wake up!"_

_Dim light. Dark room. A familiar face._

_"Carys! Wake up!"_

_Distant screams. Distant shouts._

_"Carys! We've been found!" Her mother's desperate yells._

_Fast swimming. Bloodied waters._

_Robotic machines. Heartless hunters._

_Metal cages. Locked away._

_Experimented on. All night. All day._


End file.
